A permanent campaign issue

The quote of the day (so far) comes from the excellent Wall Street Journal editorial:

This week's votes don't end our health-care debates. By making medical care a subsidiary of Washington, they guarantee such debates will never end.

If anyone doubts that, consider abortion. Roe v. Wade didn't end the national debate, it began it, by taking the responsibility away from the states and citizens. With the passage of this legislation, if it stands, every flu, ear infection, sprained ankle, broken arm, pregnancy or cancer diagnosis becomes an occasion for federal action.


There's more good stuff in there.

We also can't mark this day without noting that it couldn't have happened without the complicity of America's biggest health-care lobbies, including Big Pharma, the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the Federation of American Hospitals, the Business Roundtable and such individual companies as Wal-Mart. They hope to get more customers, or to reduce their own costs, but in the end they have merely made themselves more vulnerable to the gilded clutches of the political class.

While the passage of ObamaCare marks a liberal triumph, its impact will play out over many years. We fought this bill so vigorously because we have studied government health care in other countries, and the results include much higher taxes, slower economic growth and worse medical care. As for the politics, the first verdict arrives in November.

Read it all.

Or, for the sake of your mental health, just walk away...